Rash
by meepscrawler
Summary: PostMiranda AU. Zoe died in Wash's place. Now how's that for a twist in the story? Wash, River, and Mal centric.
1. Tonight Was Quiet

Rash 

Tonight was quiet.

Wash was used to being alone in the cockpit, but he'd never felt this alone before. All his little dinosaurs were lined up in a row, staring at him with mocking eyes. He could read the accusation in their eyes clearly, and this caused him to snap. Wash swept them all off the controls, but scattering them on the floor hadn't made him feel any better. It actually made him feel kind of dumb.

"Can't tell- they're both screaming, they're both cold, they both need her." Wash sighed and turned around in his chair to look at the source of the voice. River stood uncertainly in the doorway. She looked torn. "Can she come in?" River asked.

"Not like there's anyone else taking up much room," Wash said.

River backed out, shaking her head firmly. "No, no, no, he isn't ready yet, won't let her in." She left quickly, still muttering to herself.

Wash sighed. Alone again. He'd been alone ever since Zoe died, and there seemed to be no changing that.

Tonight was quiet.

(.) 

Tonight was quiet.

Mal wasn't complaining, though. He liked it quiet. When things were loud and noisy, then it usually meant that something bad was happening, and Mal didn't like it when bad things happened. Although recently the only thing that ever happened was bad, but Mal was half-hoping that with the Operative off their tail things would start to settle down.

He started slightly when he heard his hatch open. He looked over at the ladder and saw River climbing down.

"You know, lil albatross, people don't usually take too kindly to intrusions," he told her, half bemused and half annoyed.

She leaned against the ladder, studying him.

After a long, awkward pause, Mal tried again. "There a reason you're in my room?"

"Shh… she's looking," she sighed. "He's not ready- they're not ready. They need help, but won't let her help them. She'll be waiting." River climbed back up the ladder

Mal stared at the spot she had just vacated, long after she had left.

Tonight was quiet.

(.) 

Okay, please leave a review, let me know if you like this.


	2. A Hard Wall and a Baby's Ball

Rash 

Wash had his face buried in his pillow, just about ready to let the soothing music carry him off to sleep, when he felt her hand brush against his bare back.

"Zoe," he breathed.

"Hey baby," she said softly. "You're already tired?"

"Nope," he grinned, raising himself up. "Not tired at-" he saw her sitting there, her body torn by the Reavers. "Zoe!" he screamed sitting up.

"Can't save me," his dead wife mocked.

Wash started in his bed. He sat up gasping. "Oh god..." he buried his face in his hands. He couldn't stop dreaming of her- every night, and it always ended the same.

Wash untangled himself from the sweat-drenched sheets and dressed himself. He left their- his- room, hoping that a walk would clear his head.

His foot bumped against something by the bottom of the ladder. He knelt down and picked it up, recognizing the object at once. It was a little blue ball, with tiny orange dinosaur prints all over. Wash swallowed hard and climbed out of the room he had once shared with Zoe, fingering the ball.

In the kitchen he found River and Mal sitting at the table. The captain's head rested on the table, and a half-empty bottle of alcohol sat nearby. River was absent-mindedly running one of her hands through his hair, her gaze far off. Wash didn't ask.

"She bought it." Wash froze on his way out. "The ball." he turned back to River.

"What?" he asked hoarsely.

"You both thought there would be one more. Expected it. Wanted it. She saw the ball in the market, and thought of you. Thought of the little one." River was looking directly at him, and somehow through him.

"Yeah," Wash said, staring at the little ball in his hands. "I guess I don't have to tell you what happens next."

"You had no doctor at that time to save it," River frowned. "I'm sorry."

"That wasn't your fault," Wash reasoned. "At the time that happened, you were at the-" he broke off suddenly and winced when he saw her small flinch. "Okay, now we've managed to bring up painful memories for both of us..."

River shook her head fiercely. "I never stop thinking about it. I can't. It's always there, always waiting, lurking just under the surface-" she grew louder and more panicky as she talked. Wash let the ball slip from his fingers as he moved to the table.

"River-!" he started, not even noticing that Mal was already awake and reaching for her.

"Hey- lil' one- look at me!" Mal put his hand on her cheek and turned her face toward his. He swallowed hard, suddenly unsure of what to do next. He had never been too good at comforting or calming women… or anyone at all. Especially since he didn't even know what had set her off. "It's, uh, it's all right."

"She's- she's drowning, and they- can't- can't- save her," River pulled away from Mal.

Wash's face scrunched up in confusion. "Who now?"

Mal didn't even look at Wash. "Go get the Doc!"

Wash started backing out of the kitchen.

"Wait- don't… She's sor- I'm sorry," River set her hand on Wash's forearm to stop him. "He'll just quiet her, with calming words and silver needles. She… I… don't like silver needles."

"Neither do I," Wash said quietly.

"You look tired, lil albatross," Mal stood up and offered her his hand. "How 'bout's we be gettin' on to bed?"

River nodded, taking Mal's hand a letting him pull her up and off her seat.

"Right… I'll just be, uh, you know…" Wash said as he picked up his ball.

"Sleeping?" Mal guessed, but Wash got the sense that it was more like an order. "Got a big day tomorrow. First job since… well, before Miranda, and I need everyone to be alert." Mal led River out of the kitchen.

"Sleeping. Right. That I can do," Wash said a little too loudly, backing out of the room. When he was sure that Mal and River couldn't hear him anymore, he added out loud to himself, "Because sleeping is fun when you're visited by your dead wife."

( . ) 

Mal escorted River to her room, to make sure that she actually got there. "Well, darlin', there's your bed. So why don't you-" 

"Hard." River said, walking into her room and running her hand along the side of her bed.

"Huh?"

River turned and stepped closer to Mal. "Hard," she repeated, and knocked on his chest. "Built a wall around your heart."

Mal sighed. "Right. Well… I really should get going- and you need your rest-"

"Since Miranda," she cut him off impatiently. "Since Miranda, I've been better, and you've been worse."

Mal opened his mouth to speak, but River still wouldn't let him. "You have a wall, and he has a callous." She blinked. "She left a hole when she died. You built a wall around that hole, and the wall is- hard!" she accented the last word by knocking on his chest again. Mal winced and rubbed the area she had hit.

"I think you should be calming down now, darlin'," he wheezed, but there was a subtle note of command in his voice that stopped her. She wouldn't even look at him, just sat down obediently on the bed.

"Think you can sleep now?" Mal asked.

She nodded. "The door is always open."

"What's makin' me think that you're not talkin' about sleep?" Mal said ruefully. "Night."

River nodded again and sighed, curling up into her sheets. She tried to make herself as small as possible while Mal left. River could tell that Simon had been awoken by her loud words, but she didn't bother telling Mal that Simon was coming.

Mal closed River's door quietly. He turned away from her room and ran right into Simon.

"Whoa!" Mal jumped a bit. "You Tams sure do like sneakin' about."

"Right."

"I was just putting your sister to bed," Mal said off Simon's questioning look.

Simon looked worried. "Is she all right?" he asked, looking into her room.

"She's fine now. A while back she went all riddles and third person on me, but she's calmed down," Mal started walking away again.

"I," Simon sighed. "I'm sorry, her medications are… unpredictable, at best. I'm trying to find-"

"Maybe the meds ain't helpin' as much as you think, Doc," Mal interrupted before going up the stairs.

River smiled into her pillow. That had gotten Simon to think. Her brother came into her room and sat down on her bed.

"River… the captain told me-" 

"I know. I heard."

"Of course," Simon murmured. "Well… the medicine-"

"Don't want it," River said urgently, sitting up. "The medicine, I don't want it, because, because, it only suppresses, and then I'm worse, and…" her words were picking up speed and volume.

"Shh," Simon gathered her into his arms. "Shh, River, mei-mei, it's all right. I know you don't like the medicine, but…" he gently cupped her face and turned it up towards him. "It is helping."

River nodded mutely.

( . ) 

Okay, so, BIG thanks to Edme McCormic, negitori, just slumming, xeyra, Skychaser, and Rainstorm07 for reviewing! Hope this chapter was all right. Next one I'm planning on covering Zoe's death, the job that Mal mentioned, and maybe even doing a flashback involving the unborn baby that Wash and River talked about. Please review, because they encourage me and feed my muse, Steve (and yes, I've named my muse).


	3. Toonasaurs and the Job

Okay, sorry for the long break! I could give you all the (completely true) excuses involving computer trouble and stuff, but I think I'll just stick with making it up to you guys by updating my fics. Sound good?

People have been asking me where I'm taking this story. My answer: I honestly don't know. Each chapter just gets written as it comes to me, apparently, and usually I'm someone who likes to have the entire fic laid out before I start writing it. Not this one, though. So I don't know what the ultimate pairing will be. Originally, it was going to Wash's POV, as he watched Mal and River get together and fall apart. It doesn't seem to be going that way now. Sheesh, Steve, make up your mind!

CHAPTER THREE

Wash stood shakily out of the pilot's chair. "I am a leaf on the wind," he said in that overly dramatic tone he sometimes used. "Watch how I-" Suddenly the harpoons crashed through the windows. He felt his wife, Zoe, push him to the ground roughly. He heard Mal's voice scream out in pain and shock. Wash looked over at Mal from his position on the floor, expecting to see his captain impaled. But it hadn't been Mal who'd been struck…

Wash's eyes snapped open. He reached out automatically for Zoe, but she wasn't beside him. For a few moments he looked around the bedroom for her, before reality came crashing down on him. His hands scrubbed at his face as he stood up. Another restless night for the leaf on the wind.

Mal loaded his gun and checked it.

"She's fighting fit, captain," River motioned toward his gun.

"And are you up to this, darlin'?"

River grinned. "Always am."

"Good to hear," Mal glanced over at Jayne, who slouched moodily in his seat.

"Are we goin' yet?" Jayne complained loudly. "We ain't got all day."

Mal rolled his eyes as he climbed into the mule. He was about to hold up his hand to help River up, but Wash was already on it. There were dark bags under the widower's eyes, which told Mal that his pilot was having just as hard a time sleeping as he was.

Wash smiled wearily at River. "Take care, 'kay?"

"'Kay," she promised. Simon tried to give his sister her boots, but she pulled away from them. "They're too big! I can't dance with them on!"

Wash laughed softly and took the boots from Simon. "Hey, c'mon, what happens if you get into a fight on this mission? You don't wanna bruise your feet on one of those thugs' hard ugly faces, do you?"

Simon shot Wash a grateful look as River meekly accepted the boots. "If there's shooting going on-"

"-Don't worry none, Doc!" Mal cut in. "Trayce and I go way back, ain't no way he'll be shootin' at us."

"'Trayce and I are old friends'!" Jayne repeated as he ducked behind some crates. "'He won't shoot us'!"

"Should know by now," River quipped. "Everyone shoots at us."

Mal looked somewhat flustered. Bullets blazed over his head. "Well, I guess people change."

"He doesn't like you. Only liked Zoe," River explained.

"Well now I know that," Mal muttered. "Hey, Trayce, I'm more than willing to renegotiate the price!"

"Cease fire!" Trayce bellowed. "I ain't payin' you squat Mal! Hell, I'd be shootin' ya even if you didn't have precious cargo! Only reason I never killed ya before was because you had Zoe with ya!"

"So I'm guessin'!" Mal called back, unwilling to step out of his cover. "This ain't got anything to do with me sleepin' with your sister when we were younger, does it?"

"When you what?" Trayce shrieked. River used his momentary distraction as a chance to turn the odds in their favor. Her arm snaked up, and without even looking, she blasted a few wirings loose, and knocked down and entire pile of boxes onto Trayce and his men.

The three of them went back to the Mule and put the cargo back on it. "Lovin' the way you try to nonlethally kill 'em, darlin'," Mal smirked at River.

River frowned, unsure what to say to that. "Just needed a distraction. And wanted to make Zoe proud."

Mal paused, staring at her. "Yeah… she saw the way you handled yourself on the job…"

River smiled at him. "She's still here, Mal. You just don't know how to listen to her yet."

Jayne complained loudly about River's crazy speeches, and how unnatural it was to talk to dead folk. "_Bi zui (shut up)_!" Mal interrupted. "She been talkin' to ya, little albatross?"

River looked at her feet nervously. "Sometimes…"

"Well, best we be getting on back to Serenity. Gonna have to find us another client if we're going to sell this stuff," Mal changed the topic to prevent another freak-out from River. She sat down next to him shakily. The thought of talking to dead friends seemed to disturb her as much as it bothered Mal or Jayne.

Wash pulled out one the drawers and upturned it, spilling the contents on his bed. He sorted through the various baby things. They were what he and Zoe had bought, when they were expecting a child. After the miscarriage they had seemed to mock them, spitting in the face of all their foolish hope. Wash picked up a few of the toy dinosaurs. They were much toonier than his own personal collection, with exaggerated features and comical expressions.

More than ever the bitter loneliness Zoe had left him with rose up in his chest, threatening to strangle him with the hopelessness. He stood up abruptly, scattering the toys in his lap across the floor. He suddenly felt angry at Zoe. She had betrayed him! Finally convinced him that they should try again for a child, finally told him, in the face of almost certain death at the Reavers, that in death the only thing she would regret was never having a child with him. And then she had died! Died with that one regret…

Tears stung his eyes. He shook his head firmly. He wouldn't cry. He'd already done much more of that than any man should.

It wasn't Zoe's fault that she had died that way… it was his. He should have been hit with the harpoon, he should have been the man and pushed her out of the way, he shouldn't have been such a coward, shouldn't have refused her pleas for a child…

Wash found himself pacing the floor once again. He hadn't felt this bad since his own sister had died when he was sixteen. But at least then he had been expecting her death, had had time to help her get her last wishes. Months and months of expecting her death, months and months of waiting for the fateful disease to finally claim his sister, and she had finally gone peacefully. But with Zoe it had been so sudden. And he hadn't even had the chance to properly mourn for her at her death.

Mal had grabbed him and dragged him, literally kicking and screaming, away from Serenity and away from Zoe, away from his beloved wife.

The loud clanging of the opening cargo bay doors told him that the others were back from the job. Wash left his room to greet them and embrace a break from his despairing thoughts. In the cargo bay he was promptly enlisted to help put away the cargo that they (not unsurprisingly) hadn't been able to sell.

"Wash, I want to take us out of this world now. Think we might wanna try Fanty and Mingo again, those two seem awfully ready to start business with us again," Mal told him. The captain looked a little perturbed about something, but Wash didn't bother asking him what. He hadn't seen River around, which concerned him somewhat.

Wash went on up to the cockpit, to prep Serenity for take-off, and maybe even find River there. He sat down at his seat and set about to flicking the usual switches and hitting the right buttons. It took him a while to notice the baby's dinosaurs had joined his own on the console.

He smiled faintly. "River…"

So, thanks to Buffybot76, kaleida, Skychaser, Rainstorm07, and EdmeMcCormic. Special thanks to just slummin' (Word won't let me spell it right!), whose fics made me discover my own love for Mal/River, and inspired me to write in this fandom, and to X-MenSG-1, known on this site as QueenofAngstRomance, who betas my stories for me (and is one of my bestestest friends D).

So please, review, but don't feed Steve any sweets! Last time someone gave him too much sugar, he came up with my demented vampire story!


	4. What's To Come

Ugh, has anyone here ever had a problem separating the sections in their chapters? Well, of you'll check, you can see that the entire chapter just kinda flows together, when there should be marks clearly dividing it into sections. Crap. I'll try something different this time.

By the way, I'm not sure if I've done this yet or not, but I DO NOT OWN FIREFLY OR THE CHARACTERS OR PLACES THEREIN!!! Heck, even this fic doesn't belong to me. It was all my muse's creation…

CHAPTER THREE: What's To Come

"No! Stop!" Private Malcolm Reynolds paused in his tracks. Beside him, Monty and Deverall also stopped. "Wait…" Mal looked around for the source of the noise.

Again, the woman screamed. This time, they were able to tell which direction it had come from. Immediately they took off running toward the sound. They found about a dozen Alliance soldiers, a few of them beating a young black woman, with the others looking on and laughing. Hatred and rage pounded through Mal's skull, and he was hardly aware that he and his friends were outnumbered four to one. They still fought.

Monty, in battle, was as unstoppable as the tide and even more ferocious and terrible than any lion. Especially when he was rather pissed off. Mal and Deverall could barely keep up with their friend. When half the purple-bellies had fallen, the rest of them scattered. Monty roared insults and made to chase after them, with Mal right behind him. Deverall, being the most level-headed of the three, held them back.

"No, no! We've saved the girl, no need to go all blood-lust on the cowards," Deverall said, jerking Mal short.

"Ha! Should I ever catch another scum playing at hurtin' women, I'll make 'em pay tenfold!" Monty thundered.

Deverall rubbed his hand over his eyes. "Yes. Of course. But for now, let them be. You'd probably just chase them into their encampment, and then where would you be?"

"I'd be in paradise!" Monty grinned ferociously. "Shooting down hordes of purple-bellies before going down in blazing glory!"

"And Mal?" Deverall smirked.

Monty laughed. "He'd be a smudge on the ground! … but he'd be a brave smudge."

"Ha-ha. I find this all kinds amusing," Mal said sarcastically. He knelt down next to the woman. "Hey, think you can get up?"

This was the first time that he would ever hear Zoe's voice. "Yes, sir…" she looked up at him.

"Well, then," Mal stretched out a hand to help her up, letting his guard down for a bit.

The young woman immediately sprang up, snatched away Mal's gun and struck him across the face with it. Then she raced off, leaving Monty and Deverall roaring with laughter and Mal lying half-conscious on the ground, with a bemused smile on his face.

(Brief interlude, wherein the story changes scenes…)

Mal stared into his cup. It was late, and really, drinking wasn't such a good idea, but he'd been dreaming about the war again. It had been awhile since he'd had nightmares about, but Zoe's recent death brought them back. Of course, the nightmares weren't the only things on his mind right now. He was also being choked by the memories, and by all the numerous "what if's" that plagued his thoughts.

"Dwelling," River announced her arrival in her typical (and seemingly random) way. "Dwelling dweller dwells dwellingly." She frowned. "Dwellingly isn't a word…"

"Feelin' like some alliteration, lil' albatross?" Mal asked, half-smiling.

"Feelin'…" she scowled at him, as though her slip into the common English spoken in out here in the Black had been his fault. "Feeling like some tea. To drink. Tea to drink."

"And what else would you do with tea?" Mal teased.

"On Earth-That-Was, there was the belief that you could read your future in tea-leaves," River started fixing a pot of tea. "That same belief does still exist today, but it is not nearly as popular as astrology."

"Had a woman read my palms, once, when I was a kid. She weren't too accurate, though. Predicted that I'd get married and have three kids and live a long, prosperous life." Mal almost laughed at the memory. He had never really put much store by the supernatural, but this one prediction seemed especially ludicrous to him now.

"Could still come true," River said. "Are married, if only in name, and Liam-"

"Shut up!" Mal said suddenly, harshly. It came out with much more anger than he had wanted. She stared at him with those wide, too-wise, too-pretty eyes.

"And I've held out as long as I can," River said softly. "Now I'm letting go and holding out my hand…"

Mal stood up, swaying slightly. "Think I've had enough to drink for tonight, darlin'…" he washed out his cup, but before he could do anything else, River presented him with a cup of tea. She had made one for herself and one for him.

"Stay with me," she asked.

Mal hesitatingly took the cup from her, but didn't drink any of it. Instead he stared at her for a good long while, but she avoided his eyes. He wasn't very comfortable with apologies, but he definitely owed River one.

"River…" he began awkwardly. She shook her head very slightly, her eyes fixed on something which apparently only she could see. "River?"

"They still talk to me," she said, her face pale. The cup slipped out of her fingers and crashed to the floor. "They're still in my head! They won't get out- they won't leave- she's scared…" River crumpled to the ground. Mal automatically looked around for Simon, but the doctor wasn't nearby. So instead he knelt down next to her.

"Hey… hey, no!" Mal pried the broken glass out of her hands. "You're cuttin' yourself, lil' one. Gonna need those pretty hands if you wanna keep going on jobs with us, dong ma (understand)?"

She sucked in a shaky breath, and nodded jerkily. "Yes… no… still scared…"

"Who's scared now?" Mal asked.

"She is," River answered. Her eyes were still glued to that one spot in the air. Mal followed her gaze, but it was useless gesture. He couldn't see what frightened her so much.

"River…"

"No! She sees it coming- storm's brewing, Mal. It's bad and it's coming. And the leaf gets tossed around… she wants to protect her leaf…" River stopped rambling and looked at him in sudden clarity. "Cap'n! Simon, now, please!" she begged. She buried her face in her hands, trying to block out the images that were flooding her head. "Go away go away go away goawaygoawaygoawaygoaway…"

Mal reached out for her, but River flinched away. "Hey, hey now, River!"

Wash peered into the kitchen. He had been woken up by her screams. "River," he started toward them.

Mal heard Wash at the door. He turned around and yelled at his pilot, "Get Simon! Now!"

Wash ran out, leaving Mal kneeling on the floor besides his terrified albatross. River rocked back and forth on her heels, unable to tear her eyes away from Zoe's mutilated corpse, hanging from the ceiling, its dead, blank eyes staring at her, the rotting mouth forming words promising death.

END CHAPTER

Tea, teased… am I the only person who noticed this? …sorry.

Does anyone recognize these lyrics?

Wow, I swear, this chapter just wrote itself. I honestly didn't see that ending coming until it… well, came. A lot scarier than what I had in mind.

Also, Liam is a character that I will definitely tell you more about in later chapters. But for now, his identity must remain a secret. He is a important part of Mal's past, though. A very important part.

Now, last but not least, a big thank you to everyone who's been reading this story! Please review, if you haven't already, because any sort of feedback is always appreciated! Except for flamers, who will be trampled by Steve, who needs to be put on a diet, because he's getting very fat….

And to the ones who have reviewed! To Rainstorm07, NajaMoonshadow, just slummin'' (ha! Figured out how to spell your name right! …Well, mostly right… stupid Word…), and random girl (hey, are you the same random girl who also reviewed Prince? Do you have an account here?).


	5. Kidnapped and Kidnappeder

By the way, I'm not sure if I've done this yet or not, but I DO NOT OWN FIREFLY OR THE CHARACTERS OR PLACES THEREIN!!! Heck, even this fic doesn't belong to me. It was all my muse's creation…

This chapter was SO hard to write. The only scene that was mostly easy to do was the Wash and River one. Everything else was just plain AWKWARD.

---

CHAPTER FIVE

Simon stood at River's side, looking down at her fragile face, and wishing that he could just crawl inside her mind and know what she had seen. Her face twitched, and for a moment, and agonized expression encompassed her face. His hand was halfway to her shoulder when she calmed down again.

"I know what she saw," Wash said from behind him. Simon glanced over his shoulder. Wash took a deep breath before continuing. "It was my wife. She saw Z…" he found that he couldn't say her name. "River saw her."

"How come you know this for sure?" Mal asked.

"It was something River said. She said- corpse-ified and gross…" Wash received blank looks from the other two men in the room. "Uh, it was, uh, something I once said to- well, we were pretending that- that Jayne was a power-hungry maniac and he would kill us- and I started composing poetry…" Simon looked baffled, but Mal obviously didn't care to know anymore. "Well, you were a bit busy trying to get yourself impaled on a sword, Captain," Wash added.

Mal felt a certain chill creep down his spine. _"She's still here, Mal. You just don't know how to listen to her yet."_ He wasn't sure if this was something that he should be telling Simon. Maybe after he talked to River about it himself. "Could be that's the case. Even if it is, I'm sayin' that it was just another one of her fits, an' she'll be right as rain with a little help from her brother, right Doc?"

Simon nodded. "It was probably caused by something she saw or heard on the job. Or even something she saw in our minds, if any of us were… were thinking about Miranda- and all that… Well," he cleared his throat. "I'll try a few different medications, but I really thought she was getting better…" This last bit he said to himself, already rummaging through his medical supplies. He pulled out a ruttin' big needle.

Mal winced. He knew that River might hold a tiny grudge against him for allowing Simon to inject her with more of that _go se_ (crap… right?), but Mal figured it was better to let the doctor think it was a reaction to stress rather than something much more serious.

Wash shot Mal a suspicious look, fairly sure that the captain wasn't telling Simon everything. He didn't voice his curiosity though. Pointing at Simon, he mouthed to Mal, "Is he talking to us?" Mal shook his head very slightly, then signaled that it might be time for them to leave.

---

_River awoke with a start, much, much later. She was lying on the cold, hard ground, with grass forming a peculiar halo around her body. She stood up slowly, taking in the strange environment around her. River recognized the area around her as a military camp. A young man stepped out of one of the tents._

_Malcolm Reynolds stretched idly, allowing the cool morning air to soothe his aching muscles. Huddled on the ground was a group of other Independents. One of them scowled at Mal. "'ow can y'stand it, Mal? Iffin ye're askin' me, it's t'cold fer this time o' year." River could read quite clearly in Mal's mind that this was Jasper. There was another one of Mal's close friends in the group- Deverall._

_"Ha!" Monty boomed. River half-smiled. She'd seen a lot about Monty in Mal's mind, and before, in Zoe's. "I hail from the coldest of all planets spinning! On Aberdeen it was considered to be a warm day if got anywhere near five degrees Celsius!"_

_"Ya, well, there y'go exaggeratin' again, y'old carp," Jasper said bitterly. "I don' like m'summers to be any less'n sixty Cel! Even that's perty cold."_

_Mal and Deverall exchanged exasperated looks. River wondered how often Monty and Jasper fought. She hadn't been able to get a lot about Jasper from either Mal or Zoe, so she could only guess that he hadn't been around for long. "Deverall, when were we supposed to be getting our new batch of soldiers?"_

_Deverall scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I thought they'd be here by now. Career military- aren't they supposed to be better at staying on time than volunteers?"_

_"No need to wait! Here they are now- our angels," Monty motioned at the new batch of soldiers._

_Deverall swore under his breath. "I'll be, Mal- isn't that our damsel in distress? The one who stole your gun?"_

_Mal and River followed Deverall's gaze to the young black woman. He whistled. "I'm thinkin' you're right on that." They both recognized Zoe, but for Mal it was only on a subconscious level. He was reliving a memory, and he wasn't supposed to know her name yet._

_Jasper snorted. "She's the hussy who attacked you, after y'gone saved 'er life?" River shot him a dark look. She did not like him calling Zoe that._

_"Well- she's very-__very- strong and… agile-like," Mal flushed._

_The woman also seemed to recognize him too, because she lifted her chin up at him, a silent acknowledgment. Mal nodded at her. The moment seemed to somehow hang in space, dragging on for much longer than it rightfully should have. River could see that this is when their close bond started. From this moment on they would be almost inseparable-_

-With a twinge of pain and guilt, River remembered that Zoe was dead. This was no memory- it was yet another dream, but it wasn't hers, and-

She fell to the ground, screaming. "River!" Someone was calling her name, but he seemed very far off, almost indistinct. River felt as though icy cold hand had wrapped its fingers around her heart and was squeezing. She whimpered from the pain.

Suddenly Wash was pulling her up. River gasped and touched his face. "You're real."

He blinked. "Yeah, okay. So… bad dream?"

"Wasn't mine," River pulled away from him and hugged herself very tightly, trying to shake off the chilling pain in her chest.

Wash threw one arm around her shoulder companionably. "Well, since you're talking mostly sane-like things, why don't you share?"

"It was Mal's. Mal's mind, Mal's darkness, Mal's… Mal hurts," she felt tears running down her face. Wash quickly snatched up a tissue.

"We're fast sinking into psycho-babble again, Doodlebug," Wash said, dabbing at the tears. River smiled, and she felt the warmth from Wash's half-smile melting away the chill in her heart. "It's pretty late, so I'm guessing our captain had a fairly depressing dream?" She could read quite clearly in his mind, his worry that she could also see his dreams.

She pulled in a long breath. "Dreams pass in time. Don't bother me for long." River relaxed enough to let him put her back in her bed.

He sat on the floor, leaning against the side of her bed and resting his chin on her mattress. "You had us all pretty worried about you."

River bit her lip and nodded. "I saw Zoe."

"I thought you did." Wash paused. He wasn't sure if River was ready to share what had terrified her so much.

"Just an echo," she lied, not wanting to go into more detail, afraid of making Wash's dreams even worse.

"Right." Wash sighed and leaned back. "Hey, I brought a book! I'll read it to you," he offered.

"Simon wants me to stay calm," River told him. "Doesn't want me leaving my room, or doing too much. I'll have to sit out on the next job."

Wash glanced at her sheepishly. "Yeah. That's what he said. Basically I'm kidnapping you until you get better."

"I'm fine," she said agitatedly, sitting up.

"No-no! I'm kidnapping you, remember, so lay back down and let me read," Wash said firmly, pulling a chair up to the side of her bed. River groaned in frustration and flopped back down. "I'm going to be a good kidnapper, as long as you're a good… kidnappeder."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm still going on the job."

"You mean the job that Mal and Jayne are doing now?"

"What?" River bolted upright.

"You've been out a while. A few days, I think," Wash informed. He made a great show of opening the book and clearing his throat. "You can go next time, though, as long as-"

"-I'm a good kidnappeder, I know," River said irritably, settling back down. "Don't like this."

"Don't have to, Doodlebug, but please, humor your brother? He's driving us crazy."

She finally acceded, and listened to his story. It was one she'd already read, but she didn't have to heart to tell him that. Wash seemed pretty enthusiastic about introducing her to his favorite book.

---

Millions of miles away, on a quiet border moon with a population so small that it didn't even have a real name, a young woman raised her bloody arms feebly, one last time. "P-p-please. I don't- I don't know," she begged, her voice hoarse from screaming so much.

The men attacking her were brutal and professional. They didn't waver at her panic-stricken pleas. Their leader seized her hair and jerked her closer. "Your master was seen some months ago in the company of a Companion named Inara Serra. Do you know what vessel she left this pathetic moon-"

"No! No, I don't! I swear! I never even saw her, I swear, I swear, p-please!" the woman shrieked. "Please believe me!"

"The slave doesn't know anymore than her master does," one of the other men said, motioning toward the broken body of a man in the corner. "Told you this was a dead end."

"We'll try another lead then," the first man said, relenting. "Kill her. It's time we tried the Higginses."

END CHAPTER

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MUCH THANKS TO: NajaMoonshadow, Edenfalls81, just slummin, wrenbailey, Rainstorm07, and random girl for reviewing on the last chapter! Sorrysorrysorry this chapter took so long to write.


	6. Unification Day

Okay, so I was in the shower when Steve started babbling to me this time. Kinda embarrassing. Anyhoo, y'all are getting chapter six a bit earlier than I was expecting.

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CHAPTER SIX

This was bad. Bad, bad, bad. Bad, for many, many reasons. Wash had an entire list of the bad, had it all memorized. Bad because it was Unification Day. Bad because this was an Alliance-friendly bar with Alliance-friendly (and big, and strong, and scary) men about. Bad because he was here with Mal and River. Just. Plain. Bad.

Also, a good deal of Wash's bad feelings could be attributed to the large crowd of large men hovering around him, all of them joyfully (and some a little weepingly) sharing their thoughts on all the good the Alliance had done. There were many, many toasts being made, and Wash was certain that anytime now they'd realized that he wasn't toasting. He tried to distract himself by making small talk with River, but she kept steering it in directions like, 'I'm old enough to drink', or, 'Simon doesn't ever have to know!'.

This continued until Mal finally slammed down a small drink in front of her. River smirked at Wash, grinned at the captain, and greedily snatched up the glass.

"Wait, is that an alcoholic beverage? A beverage with actual alcohol in it? And we're giving it to our favorite, _young_, and admittedly crazy little Doodlebug?" Wash protested.

"Ain't too much," Mal shrugged. "She can handle just a bit, can't you, lil' albatross?"

River nodded forcefully. "Don't ruin this, Wash," she chided.

Wash sighed. A new round of Alliance-friendly toastage began, and his bad feelings increased. Mal stood up, and suddenly the sirens in the dinosaur-loving pilot's heads were screaming at the top of their lungs. "Whoa, whoa, hold it! Where do you think you're going?"

"To get another drink," Mal said innocently. Wash watched with certain dismay as the captain ordered his particular favorite-Ng Ka Pei- he couldn't understand how the captain could even stand swallowing that stuff.

"If anything happens, River, I'm gonna have to be the responsible one- don't look so horrified, Doodlebug!- and get you out of here," he said.

""Niska's skyplex, Maidenhead, Reavers," River rattled off. "I'm spreading my wings, not so little anymore."

"Doesn't mean that Simon won't kill us if you get hurt in some stupid-"

River bolted up. "A toast!" she cried out. Everyone stared at her, some of them grinning, obviously finding this display cute. "A toast, to our great Alliance! Never has this universe been graced by such a militaristic and tyrannic government! May the political swine always live free and fat on our hard-earned tax money!" Her words hung in the air for a few minutes before any of them quite caught the insults. Then there roars of general dismay and displeasure. Mal chose this moment as an opportune time to ram his glass into the face of the nearest Alliance-friendly (and big, and strong, and scary) man.

And then the bar exploded into mayhem. People were rushing at Mal, choosing him to vent their displeasure on, since, of course, they were far too noble to beat on a little girl like River. Speaking of, there she was right now, dancing through their numbers, looking so innocent and charming that none of them could ever guess just how much damage she was really doing. Men (big, strong, scary, Alliance-friendly men) were falling around her, like a trail of destruction, and Mal was obviously so proud of her right now.

Wash could have refused to join in. Could have slipped out now. But he owed it to Zoe- he had to get in a few good swings for her, before one of those Alliance-friendly (and big and strong and scary) men knocked him out.

-- -- -- - -- -- - - --- - -- --

Liam leaned against the counter, nursing his drink. The bar was filled with the typical lowlife and vermin that one would expect to find in such a seedy establishment. Snatches of conversations around him grabbed at his attention. Most of them seemed to center on the browncoats who'd charged into this bar, yesterday, and started quite a brawl. Everyone seemed aghast by their audacity- it had been _Unification Day_, of all things!

Liam snorted derisively. Just another group of fools, couldn't accept that the war was over. Right now one fellow, who'd had his jaw cracked by one of the Independents, was complaining loudly to anyone who would listen, and was taking Liam's silence as a sign that he sympathized with the man.

"-I'm tellin' ya, 'e was huge! 'E 'ad a club in iz 'ands, an' I tried to let 'im go, I did, I did, I told 'im, whawazzit, 'Ya can jus' go, I got no grudge on ye,' an' he 'it me, 'it me in the jaw, an' whaffor? I don' know, don' got no idea," and so on. Liam found the man's inability to use English remotely decently highly aggravating. "Jus' up an' 'it me on the jaw!"

"Excuse me," Liam interrupted, unable to bear hearing the man tell his story one more time. He moved over a few seats, and let the man he'd just ditched find a new victim. "Ng Ka Pei," he said shortly to the bartender. The motors in his mechanical hand clicked and whirred when he handed over the glass.

"Now ain't that funny," Lima's attention was diverted to someone else. Great, another drunk, just waiting to tell him his sob-story. "That's exactly what that Independent got yesterday, right 'fore he conked me in the head with his glass." At least this one was still sober enough to form his words fully. Most of them, anyway. "And that fella you was just talking to, he weren't hit by no man. Got his jaw broke by a woman. Little one, too, was just a slip of a girl."

"Really?" Liam prompted. "At least this story was slightly more interesting than any of the others that have been forced down his throat this evening.

The other man nodded gravely, as the bartender handed Liam his glass. "She moved gracefully, though, like she was just dancing. And grinning, too, the entire time. She was knocking the _go se_ (crap) out of every Alliance sympathizer in the bar, and having fun doing it."

"Fascinating," Liam said dryly, already loosing interest in the story.

"Funny thing is, I recognized one of the men…" the man trailed off, probably hoping for Liam to prompt him along. When Liam remained silent, he decided to just plow ahead. "His name was Malcolm Reynolds." He'd been hoping for some sort of reaction from the name, but he wasn't expecting what happened next.

Liam's reaction was sudden and violent. He seized the front of the man's shirt and hauled him up and onto the counter, sending drinks flying everywhere. "Reynolds? Malcolm Reynolds? Are you sure?" The sudden silence in the bar dragged out, as everyone stared at them in shock. Liam's right hand, the one he'd lost in the war, and replaced with a machine he'd made and designed himself, tightened its grip on the man's neck when he wouldn't answer.

"Y-y-yes! I swear, I swear! It was him! I saw him a prison camp on Hera, after the war, I'd recognize him anywhere, he tried to organize a prison riot, or he was one of the leaders there!" the man spread his hands out and made plenty of appeasing noises, to convince Liam he was telling the truth. Liam stared fiercely in the eyes for a few more moments, before releasing him.

The young man directed his cool gaze at the other habitants of the bar. "Does anyone know where he went?"

No one dared to speak, at first. Finally, one man tentatively raised his hand. "Yes?" Liam barked.

"Uh, uh, I dunno where he went, but he took off in a Firefly. Uh, think it went by Serenity…"

Liam's mouth twisted into a bitter smile. _Serenity_. Well, wasn't that all manner of interesting?

END CHAPTER

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MUCH THANKS TO: NajaMoonshadow, Buffybot76, just slumming, wrenbailey, Rainstorm07, and Gwenfrewi72. Your reviews are much appreciated, by both me and Steve.


	7. Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

Steve yelled and yelled and yelled until I wrote this. It's pretty much the longest chapter I've ever written. Also, admit it. I am evil. Or Steve is evil. Whichever.

WARNING: Much violence is about to ensue! Don't read if you can't stomach blood/gray matter splattering/dripping.

Also, a few folks have been asking me who Liam is. He's mine. My creation, so don't go looking for him in canon. You won't find him there.

---

CHAPTER SEVEN

Fess Higgins stared through the little window, watching the medics operate on his father. His own scars attested to the abuse he'd suffered at the hands of those men. The ones who had come looking for Inara three days ago. He'd barely escaped with his life, but his father wasn't looking to be so lucky. Three days of almost non-stop surgery, and all the old man had to show for it was yet more complications and the discovery of deeper and more severe wounds. Fess winced and looked down at his bruised hands, realizing that he'd unconsciously been clenching his hands into fists.

His thoughts trailed back to Inara. Did she know? Did she know that she had trouble on her tail? _Why_ were they after her in the first place? He'd been fully prepared to die rather than betray her or the Hero of Canton- apparently he had so much more honor and integrity than his father, who could never care for anyone but himself. Fess wondered idly if he was still a hero, even though in the end his silence hadn't done anything.

No. A true hero would give Inara a heads-up. A true hero would make sure that she was prepared, that she was safe. A true hero, like Fess, went to do just that.

-------- -- - - --- -- -- -

Inara Serra gently closed the door after her client, and moved to her seat. As soon as she had activated the controls, a little remainder popped up on the one of the screens, telling her that she had a few new messages- and that one of them was marked 'Urgent'. Inara frowned slightly and opened that one up first. A face appeared on the screen. "Inara…" he said. His face was bruised and bandaged, barely even recognizable, but the voice gave him away. Fess Higgins. "You have trouble. Big, damn, trouble."

--- -- -- -- - -----

Liam arrived on Persephone a few short days after the crew of Serenity had. It hadn't been too hard to track them down- he'd visited the docks they had parked at over Unification Day, and found where they were registered to go next. Then it had been a simple matter of finding a good ship going in the same direction. He exited the _August Presence_- a ship that really didn't live up to its name- and wandered around the docks, taking care to scan the surrounding ships for a Firefly. This was supposed to be the very same docks Serenity was headed for-

Liam stopped in front of the first Firefly he saw. He snorted. It was a piece of _luh sa_ (junk/garbage)! How anyone could get that thing in the air was beyond him. He was about to pas sit by when he saw the name on the side. _Serenity_. _Of course_ Malcolm had to pick the ship that would be the most challenging to keep space-worthy! _Idiot!_

Liam settled down against a small shack with the word 'bathroom' scrawled on the side, and waited to see if Malcolm would come out himself.

He didn't have to wait long. The cargo bay door dropped open, and he could see inside, where Mal and some big lug of a man were loading up a mule. A young girl, probably even younger than Liam himself, was following Malcolm around, apparently begging him for something. Liam didn't pay her any attention. Instead, he was wondering if he could get away with shooting Mal on the spot. Then the girl looked at him, and Liam, who's mechanical hand was halfway to his gun, stopped. He decided to wait. He wanted to looked Malcolm Reynolds in the eyes when he blew his brains out.

---- -- ----- ----

"Said I could go on next job. You! You said!" River complained, hugging herself. "You'll need me."

"What makes you say that?" Mal asked, throwing the last of the cargo up on the mule.

"Bad feelings. Jitters," River said ominously.

Wash laughed. "You're Jitterbug now," he muttered to the girl. She shot him a half-amused, half-exasperated glance. It reminded him so completely of Zoe that for a few minutes he felt frozen there. He was only stirred when River was dragging him out of the way. "They're leaving!" she informed him. "You'll get run over, standing where you are."

Mal nodded to her. "You stay safe, y'here, lil albatross? No more fits, and maybe your brother will be nice enough to let you go on the next job."

"He'll find another excuse to keep me back by then," River scowled, plopping down on the stairs. Mal grinned and drove the mule out of there.

Jayne grumbled beside him. "River only gets jitters when somethin' bad is about to happen. You don't reckon somethin' bad is about to happen, do ya?" he didn't look too pleased at the thought of getting shot again.

"Denver Collase knows us, we've dealt with him before, He ain't gonna cheat us, or shoot us," Mal said.

"That's what you said about Trayce!"

Mal slowed the mule down, complaining to himself about Persphone's crowded streets. "We're here, anyhow." They stopped in front of a small, rickety warehouse, squeezed between one sagging hardware store and another. A handful of men exited the warehouse as Mal and Jayne clambered down from the mule. Mal glanced over them and didn't see Denver among the men. "There a problem here?" he asked. "I was meetin' with a man called Denver Collase."

One of the men snorted derisively as the others drew their guns. Jayne muttered under his breath, something like 'told ya so', and Mal's own hand remained close enough to his gun to draw it in a hurry, if need be. "Collase ran into a bit of a problem," the man drawled, toying with the hilt of the knife strapped to his side. "Now, I hear tell you run with a certain high-bred woman by the name of Inara Serra."

Mal's heart seemed to pick up its pace, but he kept his face smooth and his breath even when he replied. "Dropped her off a week back, when we were on Greenleaf. She's probably found a new transport by now, gone off-world again."

"And you got the smell of a liar. I don't like liars," the man, obviously the leader of the group, spat into the ground. "Now. You're gonna take us back to your ship, real quiet-like, and we're gonna nose around, see for ourselves if your story has any truth in it. It does, we'll leave, no harm no foul. It don't, we kill you and your entire crew, and take Ms. Serra to a meeting which she's several years late for. _Dong ma_ (understand)?"

He could tell that Mal was still unwilling to cooperate, so he applied a bit more pressure. "We already know you fly a Firefly, _Serenity_, and that you run with a shipful of nine. Five men, four women, one of them supposing to be Ms. Serra. I was hoping to leave you and the most of your crew alive, but you refuse to show us where your ship is, we shoot you, and track down _Serenity_ ourselves, and kill all those you're trying to protect. It will be especially unpleasant for the women-folk." A cold chill ran down Mal's spine at that last, and vivid images of these men hurting River and Kaylee played through his head.

"I suppose you got me at that," Mal relented. "But just so's you know, I've since lost a few. The Shepherd and my first mate… ain't flyin' with me anymore." He phrased this last carefully. "They've been off longer'n Inara." Mal added.

"I'm sure they have," the leader sneered. "Leave that _go se_ (crap) mule behind. We'll take my shuttle. Considerin' that Collase is indisposed at the moment, I'm fair certain he won't mind you losing a few boxes of goods."

------ -------- -- --- - --- - --

Wash drummed his fingers on the console. "I'm thinkin' of getting me a bug. To add to the dinosaurs, for you," he said amiably. River nodded distractedly, her thoughts far away, trying to find Mal's, or Jayne's. "'Cuz I've got a dinosaur for every other crewmember, even still have one for Bester, but I can't believe it's taken me this long to get one for you. Y'see, I needed to find just the right one. The kind of dino that'd fit your personality." River smiled at her friend's strangest quirk. "By the way, did you like that book I read to you the other day? It originated form Earth-That-Was, isn't very popular anymore, dunno why, it's a good book."

River understood why he was talking so much. He was trying to take her mind off the job, trying not to let her dwell on it too much. Wash didn't understand that she needed to watch over the captain, that without Zoe he was far more vulnerable than he thought. "Jurassic Park. Lots of dinosaurs."

"And therein lies its greatness!" Wash enthused. "Ah, nobody gets it."

"I do," River said softly. "Fantastic creatures, feeds the imagination. Lets it run wild, lets the mind escape reality."

"Huh. I guess you understand more than I do," Wash frowned. _'Lets the mind escape reality.'_ He'd always prided himself on how clearly he thought he saw things, at least, privately, to himself. Maybe he wasn't as focused as he thought he'd been. "Anyway, there was supposed to be some movies based off that book, but I haven't managed to get my hands on them. Yet."

River perked up at this, filing this information away for Wash's next birthday. It should be easier for her to find them than it was for him. She was the psychic genius, after all. "Might soon. Many things have been preserved from Earth-That-Was, to pay homage to the future's past, to never let us forget our origins. To remember all the good, and all the bad."

"I haven't heard too much about the bad," Wash admitted. "They always make that place sound like paradise."

"Not so. That was Eden, in Book's Bible. There were wars on Earth-That-Was, there were massacres and… and racism…"

"_Racism_?" Wash repeated, shocked. Racism was unheard of. Unheard of!

"Pride of one's own race and the hatred of another's has been replaced by pride of one's homeworld and hatred of another's," River rattled off, matter-of-factly.

"Oh…" Wash said in realization. Could that really be as bad as racism? _Yes_. He sighed. At least there was no chance he'd ever be guilty of that one. New Canaan didn't exactly have much cause for patriotic feelings. "Well, one thing I gotta say- River?!" She'd left. "That's a little rude…" Wash said out loud, but inwardly he was pretty worried. She could be having another fit, or something could be wrong with the ship, or… _something could've gone wrong on the job_.

River broke into Jayne's room, hearing the men land their shuttle outside Serenity. She snatched a couple of his guns off the wall, hurrying herself along as she listened to them dragging Mal and Jayne toward the ship. She then slipped back out, not bothering to close the hatch behind her. River raced gracefully out of the bridge and onto the catwalk in the cargo hold.

She felt her stomach flop about uncomfortably when she saw Mal's face covered in bruises and cuts. The ear Niska had cut off was hanging off the side of his head. The _hun dans_ (bastards) pushing him along had apparently found the remaining scar, and decided to reopen that particular wound. Jayne wasn't in much better condition. River raised her guns, taking aim at the backs of the intruders' heads. _No feeling, no attachment, no empathy_, she told herself. _Weakens the weapon. Doesn't let it work right._

She heard Wash coming up behind her too late. "River? Something's up?" the alst wasn't a question, but now the men knew she was there. She half-turned to Wash, wanting to tell him to get out, that she could handle this. She heard the guns firing, and watched in horror as Wash stumbled back. The Weapon kicked in and screamed at her to turn around, to shoot the men who'd hurt Wash, _WHY COULDN'T SHE MOVE?!_

Wash raised his hand up to his chest, just above his heart and just under his collar bone. He stared at the blood on his hand, then looked back at River, reaching out to her. His hand brushed against the hole in River's own chest, the wound she hadn't felt. The bullet nestled in Wash's chest had torn straight through her to get to him. They collapsed together, Wash forgetting his own injury and trying to stem the flow of River's blood.

Their blood mingled together and dripped through the holes on the floor of the catwalk, some of it landing on Mal's face, as if mocking him for this, reminding him of how much this was his fault. A roar of pain and rage tore form his throat, and he surged against the men holding him back, screaming, cursing and struggling until they beat him into unconsciousness.

--- --- - -- -- --

"Hand me that wrench, would ya Simon?" Kaylee asked from under the engine. Simon glanced down at the toolbox.

"Which one?" There were several lying around.

She pointed again. "The one with the big red handle. Big ol' scorch mark on the side, came from when her back-up started fussing at me."

Simon found the one she had indicated and passed it to her. "This is just a routine check-up, right?"

"Yeah, figured as long as we was parked I could take a peek under her engine, and make sure there isn't anything she's needing. If there was, then maybe I can try sweet-talking the captain into letting me pick up a replacement," Kaylee chattered, her explanation somewhat muffled under the engine. They heard gunshots coming from another part of the ship. A loud thump let Simon know that Kaylee had been startled enough to hit her head. "OW- Simon, what was that?"

"Sounded like…" Simon stepped out of the engine room. "From the cargo bay," he told Kaylee.

"Whatcha reckon is happening?" Kaylee asked, sliding out from her spot and following him.

"I- I don't know. Stay here," Simon gently pushed her back into the engine room and stealthily sneaked down the hall, following the gunfire down the stairs. Just as he was rounding the corner, about to pass the medlab, someone stepped out from the shadows behind him.

"Might wanna hold still there, pretty-boy," a low, hoarse voice growled. Simon froze when he felt the gun nuzzle the back of his neck.

"Who are you? What's-"

"Shut it!" the man snapped. Simon clenched his jaw with an audible snap. "Step real quiet-like back up them steps," the man instructed.

Simon turned hollowly, his fear for River and Kaylee's safety warring with his angry desire to fight back. Seeing as how there wasn't much he could've actually done at the moment, Simon quietly let the man push him along, at least until he figured out where River was and how to warn her and Kaylee- and the rest of the crew, if he could.

The man dragged him into the common room, where he saw Kaylee, Mal, and Jayne already held up and bound to the chairs around the table, each of them turned away from the table and at different ends. Mal's head was drooping, and he was definitely out. Then Simon's eyes focused on the two limp figures that had been thrown so callously to the floor, left to lie in the growing pool of blood. His heart stopped, his throat tightened, and the entire 'verse just seemed to freeze in that one moment. Cold sweat poured down his face and back, and for a longest of times he lost the ability to think coherently. _River…_

"No…" Simon choked out. Then his wits returned, or most of them. "No! River! No, no, River! NO!" He jerked away from his captor and raced toward her. One of the other men standing free in the room tried to grab him, but with the strength and fury born of adrenaline rush and desperate concern, Simon was able to beat him away, brutally. He reached the bodies and automatically checked for pulses. He found that both of them were still alive, but barely hanging on. It was then that the other men finally caught up with him. They dragged him up and away, kicking and screaming. "I need to help! I need- I need to see to them, I'm a doctor, they're hurt, please- _gorramit, let me go!_"

He fought back with wild abandon, but there were too many of them. They grabbed his arms and legs and threw him into a chair. Simon bucked frantically against their strong grips, but they inexorably twisted his arms around the chair and bound him there. Then they did the same to his legs, and stuffed a dishcloth in his mouth to keep him quiet. _River…_

Angry and frustrated tears welled in his eyes, but he blinked them away. He didn't want those men to see this weakness. Simon now hated them, hated them as much as he hated the men who'd held River at the Academy, as much as he hated the Operative who'd methodically killed all in his way when he was after River, _diyu_ (hell), he hated them as much as he hated his own father, for abandoning River and for rejecting him. Simon's chest heaved with the screams he couldn't voice because of the gag in his mouth.

Kaylee bit her lip, trying unsuccessfully to hold back her sobs. She didn't want to look at Wash and River, or at all that blood, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the horrific sight. One of the intruders seized her by the jaw and jerked her gaze from her friends to his face. "We got us a call coming in from Ms. Serra. You're gonna be a good little girl, and tell her park her shuttle. If you can't act well enough to hide your fear, then lie and tell her something went wrong on the job. Well… that ain't exactly a lie, so no sin against you today." The man laughed coldly and cut her bonds.

"Don't do it Kaylee," Jayne blurted. This earned him a quick and cruel blow to the face. He spat out a mouthful of blood and glared defiantly at the man who'd hit him, daring him to do it again, even if he couldn't respond in kind.

Kaylee stood up, trembling. She couldn't see Simon's face- they had him turned away from. She gave the leader a teary nod and followed him onto the bridge. She settled down in the pilot's chair, pulling up Inara on the cortex screen. She half-hoped that the man would be stupid enough to stand in full view of the camera, but that was pretty wishful thinking. "Hey, 'Nara," she said miserably, stifling yet more hysterical sobs.

"Kaylee? Kaylee, what's-" Inara's face flooded with concern when she saw the tears on her friend's face.

"Somethin' went wrong- very wrong… on the job, is all. Just- just land the shuttle an'… an'…" _I'm like that Judas fella from Shepherd Book's Bible_, she thought to herself. The thought brought on a fresh wave of tears. "P-please, 'Nara…"

"I'll see you soon," Inara promised quickly. The man behind her was obviously satisfied with that, and reached over and switched off the link, being careful to keep every inch of him out of sight. _I was gonna break, an' beg her to stay away,_ Kaylee pouted.

"There ya go. I done it," she said quietly.

"Good girl," the man chuckled dryly and pinched her cheek. Kaylee grimaced and flinched back from his touch. This caused his face to flash with anger. He back-handed her across the mouth. "I been good to you so far. Ain't damaged you none. Don't make me hurt you more," he threatened.

Kaylee nodded frantically, too stunned for anything else. She stumbled blindly back down the hall and collapsed in her chair. They re-bound her. Then, most shockingly, the leader tipped his hat to her, Simon, and Jayne, and backed out. His thugs followed suit. "Wait!" Kaylee called. None of them listened.

"Kaylee, what in the good _diyu_ (hell) d'ya think yer doin'?" Jayne demanded.

"Why's they leavin' us?" she asked, bewildered, frantic, and scared.

"D'ya want 'em to stay?" Jayne said in disbelief.

"Why would they just go, though?"

"Could be they was just after 'Nara," Jayne reasoned.

Kaylee struggled to grasp that concept. "I… she gonna be okay?" she asked in a small voice.

"Well I dunno," Jayne mumbled.

"And what about Wash and River? They gonna make it? And the captain? Are we just gonna be left to die?" Kaylee rushed on, her voice gaining volume as she went.

Jayne was getting alarmed by her questions. "Kaylee, slow down would ya? Ya don't know-"

"And that's it! That's it exactly! I _don't_ know! I _don't_ know what's going on, I _don't_ know if we're all gonna be fine!"

A few of their captors stomped back in. One of them looked right at Kaylee. "Quiet, little girlie, and I'll make this quick." He raised his gun and aimed directly at her face, not even three feet in front of her. Jayne heard the gun fire, and felt blood and gray matter splatter across the side of his face, but couldn't bring himself to see the corpse that toppled to the ground at the foot of Kaylee's chair.

END CHAPTER

Please read and review!

MUCH THANKS TO: Edenfalls81, DemonSong10, wrenbailey, just slumming, and NajaMoonShadow for reviewing. Also, thanks to everyone who read, but didn't review, I love you guys too, anyway! Please R&R!


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